7 hand gestures that will make you feel really Italian!

It’s hard to imagine someone speaking Italian without moving their hands and face, right? This is because gestures represent an essential part of Italian communication. There are approximately 250 gestures used by Italians on a daily basis. Yes, 250! But where do they all come from?

Gestures partly come from the Italian love for dramatic and theatrical representations. Not only this, but in the past, Italy was invaded by many other countries that imposed their languages, cultures and mannerisms. This meant there were language barriers, so people had to come up with other ways of communicating. That’s where gestures came in handy!

I’ve chosen seven of the most common gestures to share with you.

But before I start:

Remember that gesticulating isn’t just about the hands; it’s also about facial expressions and posture.

So stretch out your neck and shoulders, open your eyes, warm up your eyebrows, and get ready to move your hands like never before!

Here are seven of our favourite Italian gestures and what they mean:

1. The “From Riches to Rags” gesture

Place your hand with your palm facing downwards; then, as you speak and reach the subject of the conversation, flip your hand over so that your palm is now facing upwards.

Difficulty: easy peasy

When to use

Facial expression

Phrase associated

Cultural tip

When you want to show how a situation or a person has drastically changed.

Disappointed

È cambiato / cambiata da così a così!

(He / she changed from this to that!)

We usually use this gesture when we feel sad or disappointed with someone’s behaviour.

Sad

2. The “What torture!” gesture

Make your hand into a fist and bite your index finger or flatten your hand and bite the top part of your index finger.

Difficulty: You can do it, Charlie Brown!

When to use

Facial expression

Word / Sentence associated

Cultural tip

When we want to refrain from saying something we’ll later regret.

Squint your eyes.

Porca miseria! (What the heck!)

We can use this one to let another person know we are struggling to stay calm. We use it when something doesn’t go as planned or when someone does something wrong.

When you think something not quite right is going on; for example, if you think that someone is trying to trick you.

Spread your cheekbones as if you were forcing a smile, and stretch your lips so that they are almost non-visible.

Aumm, aumm…

What’s important here is the perfect synchrony between the movement of the hand and the pronunciation of aumm, aumm.

When a situation is a bit too shady, or even illegal.

Raise both your eyebrows as if you know what is actually going on.

Don’t worry, with a little bit of practice you will soon become a Jedi Master of Italian gestures. The beauty of gestures lies in the fact that you don’t really need to speak or understand Italian to know what’s going on, so keep on practising, and before you know it you’ll be able to show everyone how Italian you really are!

Luciano was a Localisation Editor at busuu. Having grown up in Rome in a bilingual family, languages are a big part of his life. He later moved to London where he studied Computer Games Design and Story Development. You can usually find him playing board games, mooching around art galleries and cooking! He also loves reading and writing.

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